, 1887-09-16
The TENT AND KETTLE STICK.
The Gypsy's Race Feeling of Attach
ment to His Tented Home.

The Gypsy's Race Feeling of Attach
ment to His Tented Home.
But around the tent and the kettle stick
cluster by far the most hat is priced In
gypsy lore, sentiment and superstition.
The tent is the gypsy's home, as much as
your own habitation is yours. The race
feeling of attachment to 1t is wonderful to
us who see in 1t onlHa ragged temporary
covering. But it has ever been his home
from an earlier time than you have record
OF your own p~rogenitors' habitations. 1t
is undiscoverable why it is so, but these
tents here in this lovely camp on the Pre-
sunpscot nearly all face south. You will
find that true of any gypsy camp in any
part of the world. Possibly there is trace
able in it an unconscious relic of ancient
sun worshiping. Possibly your reason
that its lazy occupants love the sun like
any other animals would hold good.
"Firm as a rounded hill are the tents of
my people" breathed some gypsy poet a
thousand years ago, and the roadside wan
derer of today will pr%idefully give you the
same sentence In Romany. "My loves
breasts are as hillocks of amber, or as
bright tents FURNISHED by the sum-"
sang some Romany Solomon in the jungles
Of India, and the gypsy lover of today
signs in the same poetic simile. "True to
my people as are our tents against the
sand wind;'' 81 will cling to my Rom (the
first, the head, the husband like the pan
Their skin to the crooked wood"-i. e., as
closely as the panther's hide to the tent
bows; "Our tents shall guard from the
storm darts as shields of brass make
powerless great SPEARS" "As the crouch
ing hare is vaulted by the raging lion,
shall our earth colored tents remain hid
den from the pursuer;" GAS still as the
red stars asleep, shall nestle our tents in
the valleys;'' GAS the heart holdeth the
warm blood and giveth strength, SO my
ten holdeth all my life"-are a few of
the innumerable poetic imageries attach
ing to the tent, while the rough and unc-
tuous fancies crystallizing motive and
character are countless.
The skewer is the sharp hickory peg
with which the wooden coverings are
pinned to the tents. Consequently a
virago has "'an evil eye and a skewer
tongue" A wasteful gypsy is as a GOV
erless tent; a spiritless one as a rotten
tent bow. A lewd woman is as a fallen
tent, and a good one "as sung as a proper
tent" There are also many quaint and
tender love and gypsy home songs, in
which the tent stands for all that shuts
harm out and good lin; while there are
certain unwritten and %inviolable laws and
customs about the tent which are very in
teresting to observe and study. The rule
is universal preventing gypsies occupying
the tents inner compartments save at
night, or when driven inside by storms.
In case of quarrels, involving serious trou-
BILE and possibly e~ndangering of life, no
gypsy who is defending himself may be
pursued within the tent. Gypsies cling to
an old tent until the last moment it can be
spliced and patched together out of pure
affection for it. can old tents an old
friend, - is one of their proud sayings.
Any gypsy born under a tent preserves n
piece of its bows or wooden covering until
his dying day and it is then buried with
his effects. To be born in the tent carries
pride as does q good strain of blood. Those
born 'under a roof" are regarded as I'M
fortunate. These are often derisively
termed in Romany kair rajahs, or ''house
lords. Edgar l.. Wakeman's Letter.